MYOM
MAKE YOUR OWN MASTERS
The creative industry and education have a huge problem, the barriers to entry are too high, forcing out and denying access to vital talent.
MYOM is a creative learning movement looking to tackle the ‘drop off’ between university and industry for those from less advantaged backgrounds. The project builds a multi-disciplinary, multi-background collective each year, bringing people together with the common goal to build a year of self-directed learning and break down the barriers many face in pursuit of a creative career.
To make it in the design industry, a master’s can be a very useful thing to have on your CV, but when graphic design graduate Stacie Woolsey was contemplating embarking on her own in 2018, she was shocked to discover that it was likely to set her back around £40,000. This is, obviously, quite a hefty privilege barrier to overcome if you’re at the front end of a design career, but Stacie found a way to overcome it. Reaching out to established designers she admired, she asked each one to set a brief for her to complete over the next 18 months – a programme of self-directed study that gave her all the learning of a master’s qualification, plus practical industry experience, without the prohibitive price tag of a formal institution. Her studies culminated in a solo show at Somerset House in 2019.
Since then, Stacie has scaled up. Make Your Own Masters is now an agile and inclusive learning system that gives anyone, from any background, who feels obstructed from a creative career, the tools to independently design their own industry education – including access to workspace, mentorship and design briefs. For many people from disadvantaged backgrounds, an MA is one of the only viable routes into the creative industries, and yet there is still a seemingly insurmountable barrier to overcome in order to access MA programmes. Make Your Own Masters aims to bridge that gap. After successfully supporting 10 MYOM students in 2021, Stacie is building a new multi-disciplinary, multi-background creative collective for 2023. For an industry where equity of access is a major problem (see also: Design Can), Make Your Own Masters might just be the solution.
-ZETTELER PR
MYOM x Selfridges
MYOM X Design Museum
MYOM x Dezeen